Anticreeping device for rails.



A. J. NEAFIE.

ANTICREEPING DEVICE FOR RAILS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 1 1915'.

1 ,1 85,234. Patented May 30, 1916.

2' sHEETs-sHEEI 1.

Wane-coco Q v gvwowfoz A. J. NEAFIE.

ANTICREEPING DEVICE FOR RAILS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-1.1915.

Patented May 30, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Q vitmcooe a g mme/4M0? ANDREW J. NEAFIE, or BOONTON, NEW JERSEY.

ANTICREEPING DEVICE FOR RAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Application filed September 1, 1915. SerialNo. 48,438.

To all whom it may concern: Y

Be it known that I, ANDREW J. NEAFIE, a citizen of the United'States, and resident of Boonton, county of Morris, State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Anticreeping- Devices fication. v

rail is arrested. v A furtherobject of-my nven'tion isto pro-9 bined with eachother and with the rail in such a manner as to prevent accidental and unintentional separation thereof without interfering with theautomatic adjustment of said parts relatively to-each other and to the creeping tendency of said rail whereby anyv .v-idea means whereby my improved anti creeping device may. be efliciently used with' 'railsof varyingweights or'sizes I in the appended claims.

1 Other objects of my '1mprovement-will-ap-"' pear from the description hereinafter and the features "of'novelty will be pointed "out V terminating atJ-a distance therefrom as In the accompanying drawings which illustrate a numberjof examples of my imformiilgjiart of I p v cross-section on the line-3-3 of Fig. 1; Figs.

arrangement. v t j Asshojwn in Figs. 1, 2 andx3 the dev ce comprises a clamp 10 which may b of any n 'provement Figure 1 is a side'elevation'; Fig.

2 .isan inverted plan view' of the wedge my construction; Fig.3 is a 1 and 5 are views similar to Fig. 1 showing slightly different arrangements; Fig. 6 1s. a

side elevation of an ad usting wedge formingpart of my; invention; Fig. 7 is an in- Fig. 3 showing) the adjusting also similar" to 3 illustrating another suitable construction and which in the illus trated example fits'over or embraces-the base 11 of the rail 12 and is spaced from the lowerv surface thereof. as shown in Fig. 3.

The device further includes a wedge"13 adapted to extend betweenthe lower surface of the rail .base 11 and the clamp 10 and having a wedging surface 14 inclining downwardly toward one end of saidwedge. As shown in the drawings this wedging surface 14 which may be formed by curving the wedge outwardly, in the assembled condition of the parts preferably fits into a recess 10 formed for instance at approximately the center of the clamp 10. With this construction relative movement between the clamp 10 and the wedge 13 in a direction transverse to the rail 10 is prevented and a lengthwise extending recess 13 is formed in the upper surface of said wedge 13., It will of course be understood that this arrangement is not arbitrary and that the same may "be changed if desired. The butt or large end of the wedge 13 is further continued and bent to' form a head or. the like 15 adapted, in the operative position of the parts, tobear against a tie 1 5 or. other stationary part of the track or road bed for .the purpose to be more fully set. forth hereinafter In addition to this the opposite or [small end :Ofj thewedge 13 is continued to form; a curved or otherwise shaped end member- 16, the latter itself being continued to 'form an, arm 17 located beneath and spaced from the wedge 13, the said arm extending toward the head 15 and preferably clearly shown in Fig. 1. .The inner or upper surface of this arm 17 in the form now being described is provided with a plurality of corrugations or the like 18 which may be formed in any suitable manner, for instance as shown in Fig. 1, it being of vmodate a projection 19 extending downwardly from the clamp 10 preferably at approximately .its central portion as shown in Fig; 3. This projection 19 may be of any suitableshape and isadapted in combination with the corrugations14 or. thelike to pre- Patented May so, 1916.

course understood "that the corrugations or vent separation-of the parts as will appear more'fully hereinafter; In placing the parts [of this form of my improvement inoperative position the clamp 10 is firstpassedthrough the loop formed by the curved end member 16 and its opposite ends placed over the rail base which brings the wedge 13 between the clamp 10 and the lower surface of said base 11. The parts are so positioned on the rail'12 as to bring the head 15 into engagement with the tie 16 or other stationary portion of the track or road bed it being understood that the wedge points in the direction opposite to that inwhich the rail tends to creep. The clamp 10 is now moved toward the head 15 with the wedging surface 1-l located in the depression or recess 10 and,

forced home on said wedge whereby through the medium of said 'wedging surface 14: in cooperation with the clamp itself the latter is caused to firmly and securely grip the rail base 11 at opposite edges. Owing to the fact that the normal distance between the wedge and the inner or upper surface of the arm 17 is less than the distance between the free end a of the projection 19 and the surface I) of the clamp 10, the arm 17 will be depressed as the clamp 10 is forced home on the wedge. The depression of the said arm 17 is possible owing to the fact that the end member 16 gives the same a certaln amount ofresiliency or in other words permits it to yield as will be clearly apparent. As the movement of the clamp 10 relatively to the wedge 13 is continued in the opera tion of properly combining the parts, the said projection 19 will snap into the first corrugation 18 and if a further adjustment is necessary will move out of same and snap into the next corrugation as the movement is continued, this operation being repeated until .finally the parts are properly adjusted with said projection 19 seated in one of said corrugations 18. In any case the clamp 10 Wlll be firmly locked against a return movement thus normally preventing a separation of the wedge and clamp and yet permitting the latter to move farther along on the wedge 13 toward the head 15 under the creeping tendency of the rail. It will be understood that when the rail tends to creep itcarries the clamp 10 with it and thus forces it lengthwise of the wedge 13 which is held against movement in the creeping direction of the rail by the tie or other stationary portion of the track or road bed. In this man ner the clamp 10 will be caused to still more firmly grip the rail base whereby the creeping ofsaid rail is efficiently and quickly arrested. During these operations the projection 19 will pass from one corrugation 18 to the other so that an unintentional separation of the wedge and clamp is "at all times effectively prevented.

The arrangement illustrated in Fig. 4, generally speaking. is the same as in Figs. 1-3 with the exception that the corrugations 18 are replaced by a series of teeth 18*. These teeth 18 may simply appear on the upper or inner surface of the arm 17 or said teeth 18 may be formed by shaping the said arm for instance as shown in Fig. a. With the arrangement at present being described the projection 19 on the clamp 10 is shaped to -fit the teeth 18 snugly as is also clearly illustrated in'Fig. 4. The application and operation of this construction is exactly the same as in the form first describedand the same advantages are present therein. It will of course be understood that the shape of the teeth l8 and of the projection 19 may be varied as desired.

In Fig. 5 the arm 17 is formed with inclined portions 17 and 17 whereby a single projection 18 is produced behind which the clamp 10 is arranged to set when the parts are fully assembled. The operation of this form, which will be clear from the illustration, is substantially the same as in the two previous forms, it being understood that the resiliency of the arm 17 is suflicient to prevent a return movement of the clamp beyond the projection 18 regardless of what part of the portion 17 is in engagement with said clamp 10.

It will be seen, with all the illustrated forms of my improvement so far described, that the clampis movable relatively tothe wedge in one direction to cause the device to efficiently arrest any creeping of the rail but is normally incapable of being separated therefrom by any movement in the opposite direction. The latter movement of the clamp will in theoperative condition of the parts always be arrested before said movement is suflicient to disarrange the parts or to render the clamp sufficiently loose on the rail base to permit the rail to move relatively to said clamp or to slide therethrough as the creeping tendency is exerted.

To intentionally separate the clamp from the wedge when for any reason this is desired it is merely necessary to force the various arms against their tension a sufficient distance to disengage the various projections or clamps from the corrugations, teeth or projections and thus permit the clamp to be freely moved toward the small end of said wedge. This actuation of the arms may be readily accomplished by means of a crowloar or other suitable implement. It will of course be understood that in some cases the forms shown in Figs. 1 and -1 may include merely a single corrugation or tooth properly positioned to secure the intended results and also that the form shown in Fig. 5 may be provided with more than one projection if desired or found. advantageous. With my improvement so far referred to the parts of the device are firmly locked against disarrangement from vibration, contraction or other causes and are at all times secured against unintentional separation thus assuring a maximum of efficiency under all conditions.

As is well known, railroad rails are made of different weights and with bases of difa of base. As shown in Figs.

ferent thicknesses so that ordinarily a device of the present character intended for use with a heavy rail having a thick base could not be satisfactorily used with a lighter rail having a thinner base and special devices would have to be constructed for each different type of rail. To overcome the ne- ,cessity for this I have provided a means whereby my improvement may be efliciently used with rails of any weight or thickness 6, 7 and 8 this means comprises an auxiliary or adjusting wedge'13 having a head 15 and shaped to form a surface 1 1 adapted to fit into the recess 10 of the main wedge 13. When it is desired to use a device intended for a heavy rail in combination with a rail of lighter weight, this adjusting wedge 13 is simply combined with the main wedge 13 to increase the thickness thereof as shown in Fig; 8. In the combined condition the adjusting wedge 13? is superimposed on the main wedge 13 with the surface 14 in the recess 10 and the head 15 against the head 15. In this manner the wedging means is increased in thickness sufficiently to compensate for the relatively larger space between the rail base of a lighter rail and the clamp normally intended for use with a heavier rail so that the device operates equally well with both rails. By providing a series of auxiliary or adjusting wedges of different dimensions as to thiclmes s, the device may be eflicientlyused with rails-of any weight. The cooperation of the surface 14: and recess 10? prevents separation of the main and auxiliary wedges in a transverse direction,.it being understood that in some cases boththe recess 10 and the surface 14 or. the latter alone may be omitted, it being obvious that the wedging surface 14.- on the 'wedge 13' may be constructed or produced otherwise than as shown.

Instead of using an auxiliary or adjustingwedge for the purpose described I may construct the clamp 10 with a relatively straight portion 10 tinuing portion 10 and provide recesses 10 and 10 located respectively, in the straight portion 10 and the inclined portion 10.

With this arrangement it will be-seen that the recess 10 1s in a different plane than the recess 10 andis so located as to equa-hze the distance between itself and'the base of a light rail with the distance between the recess 10 and the base of aheavier rail hus by inserting the wedging surface 14 into the recess 10. or 10-as the'case may be the same device may be used equally well with light or heavy rails. It will of course be understood that aseries of recesses 10 may provided in the inclined portion 10 to still further increase the range of usefulness of the device.

and an upwardly inclined conments shown and described may be made within the scope of the claims without departing from the spirit of my invention.-

I claim: y

1. An anti-creeping device for rails comprising a. clamp arranged to engage the rail-base, a wedge located between said railbase and clamp whereby the latter is caused to grip said rail-base and arrest the creeping tendency of the rail and a resilient means depending from the reduced end of said wedge and extending back toward the enlarged end thereof, said means being arranged to engage said clamp whereby separation of said clamp and wedge is normally prevented.

2. An anti-creeping device for rails comprising a clamp arranged to engage the rail-base, a wedge located between. said railbase and clamp whereby the latter is caused to grip said rail-base and arrest the creeping tendency of the rail, a resilient arm conbase, a wedge located between said rail-base and clamp whereby the latter is caused to grip said rail-base and arrest the creeping tendency of the rail,'an arm spaced from said wedge, a connection from the small end of said wedge to one end of said arm, the opposite end of the latter being free, and a plurality of projections on said arm adapted to successively engage said clamp whereby separation of said clamp and wedge is normally prevented.

4. An anti-creeping device for rails comprising a clamp engaging the rail-base and movable therewith in the direction of creep. a wedge for resisting the movement of said clamp whereby the creeping tendency of the rail is arrested, means whereby said wedge is held against movement in the creeping direction and means connected with the small. end of said wedge and extending back toward the wedge holding means whereby a movement of the clamp the butt end of the wedge and arranged to engage a stationary element to secure said wedge against movement in the creeping direction, an arm spaced from said wedge and extendingtoward the said head, a conarm adapted to secure said clamp against a.

movement tending to separate it from said Wedge.

6. An anti-creeping device for rails com prising a clamp arranged to engage the rail-.

base, a wedge located between said rail-base and clamp whereby the latter is caused to grip saidrail-base and arrest the creeping tendency of the rail, a resilient arm connected with said wedge, and cooperating projections on said arm and clamp whereby separation of said clamp and wedge is normally prevented. v

7. An anti-creeping device for rails comprising a clamp arranged to engage the railbase, a wedge located between said rail-base and clamp whereby the latter is caused to grip said rail-base and arrest the creeping operatively combined with rail-bases of different dimensions. v

8. An anticreeping device :Eor rails comprising a clamp arranged to engage the railbase,'and a wedge arranged to extend be tween said clamp and wedge to arrest the creeping tendency of the rail, said clamp being provided with a plurality of recesses located in diflerent planes for the accommodation of said wedgewhereby said clamp and wedge are adapted to be operatively combined with rail-bases of difierent dimensions.

In testimony whereofl have hereunto set my hand. v

r ANDREW- J. NEAFIE. 

